Cholesteric liquid crystal comprises a plurality of layers. Molecules are arranged along a same direction in each of the layers, but the arrangement directions of molecules are rotated by an angle of about 15 minutes between any two adjacent layers, so that a spiral structure can be obtained in the stacked layers. When the arrangement of the molecules of an upper layer is rotated by 360 degrees with respect to a lower layer, the distance between the upper layer and the lower layer is a pitch p. According to the direction of the spiral structure, the cholesteric liquid crystal is divided into left-handed cholesteric liquid crystal and right-handed cholesteric liquid crystal, which can respectively reflect left circularly polarized light and right circularly polarized light. The reflection of the cholesteric liquid crystal follows the Bragg law: λ=n*p (wherein n is average refractivity of the cholesteric liquid crystal, and p is a pitch of the cholesteric liquid crystal). When the cholesteric liquid crystal is a mixture of a series of liquid crystals having different pitches, it may probably reflect the whole wavelength band of the visible light. The cholesteric liquid crystal may have bistable state characteristic, i.e., being in a planar alignment (after application of a high voltage) or a focal conic alignment (after application of a low voltage) when no power is supplied, while being vertically arranged when it is energized, and at this time, it become equivalent to the normal VA (Vertical Alignment) mode liquid crystal. With cholesteric liquid crystal's reflection performance, cholesteric liquid crystal may be used for manufacturing a reflective polarizer; by making use of its bistable state characteristic, cholesteric liquid crystal may realize reflective liquid crystal display and transparent display.